Fear: The Horse and His Boy

Chapter 11

Next moment Alvina wondered why everyone at the table had risen and was standing perfectly still. Of course she did the same himself. And then she saw the reason. Aslan was among them though no-one had seen him coming. Rabadash started as the immense shape of the Lion paced softly in between him and his accusers.

"Rabadash," Aslan said. "Take heed. Your doom is very near, but you may still avoid it. Forget your pride, what have you to be proud of, and your anger, who has done you wrong, and accept the mercy of these good kings."

Then Rabadash rolled his eyes and spread out his mouth into a horrible, long mirthless grin like a shark, and wagged his ears up and down. He had always found this very effective in Calormen. The bravest had trembled when he made these faces, and ordinary people had fallen to the floor, and sensitive people had often fainted.

But what Rabadash hadn't realised is that it is very easy to frighten people who know you can have them boiled alive the moment you give the word. The grimaces didn't look at all alarming in Archenland; indeed Lucy only thought Rabadash was going to be sick.

"Demon! Demon! Demon!" the Prince shrieked. "I know you. You are the foul fiend of Narnia. You are the enemy of the gods. Learn who I am, horrible phantasm. I am descended from Tash, the inexorable, the irresistible. The curse of Tash is upon you. Lightning in the shape of scorpions shall be rained on you. The mountains of Narnia shall be ground into dust. The——"

"Have a care, Rabadash," Aslan quietly said. "The doom is nearer now: it is at the door: it has lifted the latch."

"Let the skies fall," Rabadash shrieked. "Let the earth gape! Let blood and fire obliterate the world! But be sure I will never desist till I have dragged to my palace by her hair the barbarian queen, the daughter of dogs, the——"

"The hour has struck," Aslan said: and Rabadash saw, to his supreme horror, that everyone had begun to laugh.

They couldn't help it. Rabadash had been wagging his ears all the time and as soon as Aslan said, "The hour has struck!" the ears began to change.

They grew longer and more pointed and soon were covered with grey hair. And while everyone was wondering where they had seen ears like that before, Rabadash's face began to change too. It grew longer, and thicker at the top and larger eyed, and the nose sank back into the face and there was hair all over it.

His arms grew longer and came down in front of him till his hands were resting on the ground: only they weren't hands, now, they were hoofs. And he was standing on all fours, and his clothes disappeared, and everyone laughed louder and louder for now what had been Rabadash was simply and unmistakably, a donkey.

The terrible thing was that his human speech lasted just a moment longer than his human shape, so that when he realised the change that was coming over him, he screamed out:

"Oh, not a Donkey! Mercy! If it were even a horse—even a horse—e'en—a—hor—eeh—auh, eeh-auh." And so the words died away into a donkey's bray.

"Now hear me, Rabadash," Aslan said. "Justice shall be mixed with mercy. You shall not always be an Ass."

At this of course the Donkey twitched its ears forward—and that also was so funny that everybody laughed all the more. They tried not to, but they tried in vain.

"You have appealed to Tash," Aslan said. "And in the temple of Tash you shall be healed. You must stand before the altar of Tash in Tashbaan at the great Autumn Feast this year and there, in the sight of all Tashbaan, your ass's shape will fall from you and all men will know you for Prince Rabadash. But as long as you live, if ever you go more than ten miles away from the great temple in Tashbaan you shall instantly become again as you now are. And from that second change there will be no return."